With nine races to go, the BTCC’s second trip of the season to Donington Park, albeit this time on the Grand Prix layout, marked the start of the business end of the season. 

With Tom Ingram suffering his first DNF of the season at Knockhill, it allowed Jake Hill to close the gap at the top of the standings to just three points, while reigning champion, Ash Sutton, left Scotland only twenty points behind Ingram. 

Qualifying

With only medium compound tyres being used on Sunday, it meant a change for qualifying as teams could choose between the soft and medium tyres for the session that was held on a damp, but drying, track. Josh Cook secured his fourth career pole position, just pipping the man on pole at the previous two events, Colin Turkington. Mikey Doble was an impressive third ahead of Sutton, Ingram and Árón Taylor-Smith, while Hill just missed out on the top six in seventh. 

Race One, 7/10 – Colin Turkington, Ash Sutton, Jake Hill

• Turkington made a great start and jumped Cook as soon as the lights went out, while Sutton also made a position on Doble. However at the end of the opening lap, Doble and Ingram tangled and it sent the championship leader down to 12th. Hill was up to 4th on lap 2, but there was also a fantastic start for Dan Rowbottom who made eight places to be 7th. 
• After a small slide at the bottom of the Craner Curves for Cook, it allowed Sutton to use his momentum to take second place on lap 3, but after Andrew Watson demolished the tyre stack at the Esses, only the sixth safety car period of the season was required to recover his car and sort the track furniture. 
• The race resumed on lap 8, where Taylor-Smith nearly wiped out the re-positioned tyre stack, but with Dan Cammish delayed, it helped Ingram overtake them both into 7th. 
• A couple of laps later, the top four were clear of the pack with Turkington and Sutton a little further ahead of Hill and Cook, but Ingram made moves on Adam Morgan and Rob Huff to recover to 5th after his early race incident. 
• Turkington, meanwhile, was made to work hard by Sutton for his victory with the pair bumper to bumper for laps, before Turkington eventually broke clear to take the chequered flag. 

Race Two, 7/10 – Ash Sutton, Colin Turkington, Jake Hill

• Just before the cars made their way to the grid, a short downpour made conditions interesting, although the drivers stuck with slick tyres. 
• Turkington was initially away well, but with the BMW notoriously slower to warm up its tyres, Sutton made his move to take the lead on the opening lap, which also saw contact between Cook and Cammish after a Morgan tap. Although Cook maintained his position, Cammish fell down the pack. 
• At the end of the first lap and into the second, Ingram made his move on Hill to claim 3rd. After several laps of not letting Sutton get away, Turkington suffered the sucker punch as Ingram used his hybrid wisely to claim 2nd on lap 5, but the trio were all still bumper to bumper for many further laps. 
• There was also a great mid-pack battle for 10th which involved around six cars and the positions kept swapping lap on lap.
• On lap 8, an innocuous bump from Ingram into the back of Sutton had big consequences a couple of laps later as Ingram showed signs of a problem when Turkington and Hill zoomed by, before he pulled into the pits after losing fluid from the bump and cooking his engine. 
• While Morgan eventually made a great move on Huff, Sutton held off Turkington to claim his second victory of the season. 

Race Three, 8.5/10 – Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram, Árón Taylor-Smith

• Cammish recovered to 11th in race two and as his teammate Sutton selected ball 11, he was promoted to reverse grid pole alongside another of his teammates, Sam Osborne. It was an all-Astra second row with Doble ahead of Taylor-Smith.
• It was a great start from Cammish, while behind him it was chaos with cars and position changes everywhere, including Sutton going over the gravel at the esses following slight contact. However, Sutton’s car was not in a good way with it crabbing and he had to pit as a result, before re-joining at the back several laps later. 
• The second lap produced further action with Turkington notably being spun around at the Melbourne Loop by Huff after he had been hit by Rowbottom. It meant Turkington dropped to 18th, but some impressive laps saw Ingram already 11th from the back of the grid. 
• Ingram continued his charge and picked off cars lap after lap, including Hill. 
• The battle of the Astras was halted on lap 6 as the safety car was needed to sweep the track clear of debris after Chris Smiley’s wheel arch disintegrated towards the end of the lap. 
• Although Cook and Ingram overtook Morgan after the re-start, the racing only lasted a lap before another safety car period as Aiden Moffat’s Toyota was beached in the gravel at the esses after contact with Watson. 
• Despite spots of rain, racing restarted on lap 12 and Cammish with Taylor-Smith on his tail battled it out for the lead, before Cammish prevailed. Meanwhile, Ingram was soon up to 3rd after a move on Doble, while Turkington was now 7th after passing Morgan. 
• In the final laps, Ingram made a move on Taylor-Smith for 2nd and while Taylor-Smith was holding up Cook and Hill, the latter could not pass Cook no matter how hard he tried. 

After praising the BTCC for seemingly finally getting it right with hybrid and the tyres after Knockhill, typically only medium tyres were used at Donington Park, but it made no difference as the event probably produced the best set of races of the season. This is, of course, was helped by some of the title challengers finding themselves in strife as the day ebbed and flowed. 

However, a consistent day for Hill, with a brace of thirds and a fifth, means that he now leads the championship by nine points from Ingram. Hill never looked like winning a race, but he banked solid points and most importantly, he kept out of trouble. 

Ingram, of course, did find himself in trouble in the opening two races and although he recovered in race one, race two was a different matter. We’ve seen cars bump into each other hundreds of times, but the way Ingram hit Sutton to cause the damage it did was quite unlucky. At that part of the day, Hill must have thought he would have had a sizeable lead at the end of the day, but he hadn’t counted on Ingram’s stupendous drive in the final race of the day. 

To start 19th and to carve his was through the field to finish 2nd was stunning – the drive of his life. Ingram was naturally aided by the two safety car periods that helpfully bunched up the field, but that shouldn’t take anything away from a potentially championship winning drive. 

Hill would have also have thought that he would be leading the championship from Sutton, not Ingram, but on a crazy day, Sutton suffered his own issues. After pushing Turkington all the way in race one, before earning his second win of the season in race two, Sutton was out of luck in the third race. 

Interestingly, Sutton looked like the Sutton of previous years at Donington. He looked like the fast Sutton again, which also is testament to how he’s performed this season to still be twenty points behind the leader even when he hasn’t been on top form. 

Although Turkington has shown great from in the last three rounds, winning the opening race in each, to really close the gap on the leaders, he still remains 43 points behind Hill and given the form of the other three, Turkington’s chances of a fifth drivers’ crown are slim to none. 

However, like after Knockhill, who will win this championship, with just two rounds to go, is a mystery. The form of the top three is imperious and even after setbacks, they still seem to be able to produce the ridiculous to keep themselves in firm contention. It’s a fantastic battle and something the fans of BTCC are relishing, especially after the poor last couple of seasons. Onwards to Silverstone! 

2024 BTCC Championship standings after 24 rounds:

1.	Jake Hill	316 points
2.	Tom Ingram	307
3.	Ashley Sutton	296
4.	Colin Turkington	273
5.	Dan Cammish	270
6.	Josh Cook	262